Lover of the United States while being strongly opposed to the war in Iraq: the American press returns on the relations between Jacques Chirac and America.
The New York Times recalls, like other newspapers, that the former French president, who died on Thursday 26 September at the age of 86, did a summer program at Harvard in 1953 and worked for a Howard Johnson restaurant in Boston, "starting as a diver and climbing up to the counter man station", Recalls the daily. He also worked as forklift operator for the Anheuser-Busch beer producer in St. Louis, Missouri, and became engaged with an American woman who called it "honey pie," says Bloomberg. This short and passionate story ended when his father's father wrote to him "an angry letter telling him, basically, to go elsewhere. From there, Mr. Chirac went to California and Louisiana, writing a long text on the port of New Orleans"Continues the New York Times.
However, the daily notes that he had "ambivalent reports"With the United States. "Once elected president, Chirac said he wants to return to NATO's military command"After the withdrawal desired by his idol, General de Gaulle. But "ten years later, in a speech to the United Nations, his foreign minister announced that France would not join the coalition led by the United States to attack Iraq and he denounced the use of force". "He did not consider himself anti-American. He was rather the defender of France and Europe, believing in a multi-polar world", Summarizes the NPR radio station.
Like all American media, the New York Daily News also talks about his opposition to the 2003 war in Iraq, which gave the United States an anti-French feeling that crystallized in the "Freedom Fries" episode. For the newspaper, he was a "opposing the war in Iraq but also a fan of American food and culture". "He preferred to smoke Winstons than the Gauls, and one of his colleges told People Magazine that he insisted on having a burger in a fast food when he was visiting the United States".
The anger against France in parts of the American population continued well after it was established that Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction. "US hostility shook the French, but Chirac maintained his positions at the United Nations"Explains the CBS channel. "As a veteran of the Algerian war, Chirac predicted that the American occupation would end up in a bloody quagmire similar to the French difficulties that led to the independence of Algeria.", Analyzes the LA Times.
For Bloomberg, this opposition is not surprising from a politician who has often been rebellious. "The president, who began his career under Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s, has built a reputation of distrust in the image of his mentor, first against his own bosses and later against the United States".
The Washington Post recalls for its part that Jacques Chirac, a president "flamboyant"Was"the first foreign leader to visit the United States after the 9/11 attacks. He visited Ground Zero to meet New York firefighters and later sent French troops to Afghanistan as part of US-led military operations.".
